Steeple and others from Wasdale

Date: 27-May-2010

Map: Landranger 89, OL4

Weather: Sunshine eventually with clouds buzzing past.

From Overbeck Bridge up the valley to
Dore Head, up to Red PIke, along the ridge and around to
Steeple and Great Scoat Fell. Down and across to Haycock and
onto Caw Fell. Returning via Haycock and Scoat Tarn, Low
Tarn and Overbeck:
11.8 miles as measured on Satmap GPS

I've been
off work for a while now and have had plenty of good walks
in the Lake District, Wales and Scotland. I also knocked off
the first short long walk - The Herriot Way. I picked out
the best day of the week for this one, a little chill in the
wind, but in and out of the sunshine all day. I've got
a really long walk coming up in June so needed to keep the
old legs moving. Wasdale is the home of the best view in
Britain supposedly, but there are plenty of other places I
could pin the same title on - but the view up the valley as
you drive in never fails to inspire. I walked here in late
February in whiteout conditions and vowed to return for the
views - I got them in spades today. I parked at the small
car park at Overbeck Bridge - it has a National Trust
honesty box for parking, so I fed it the usual change. I met
a workmate on the plane to Norway and he told me that the
best views were actually from Great Gable looking down
Wasdale - I think I'll save that one for later, maybe my
last one? I got ready and had a good glug of water and some
Ibubrofen for the knees and set off on what would be an
uphill pull all the way up to Red Pike.

the view up Over Beck

looking up to Dore Head ahead

Yewbarrow looked
very steep, as it is and the initial path forks left away
from the higher ground. Down to my left the beck has cut
steeply into the hillside, a cool gorge in the height of
summer and plenty of ferns abound here. There was a thin
track through the bracken, and it must be tight in the
summer with the odd tick as well, as plenty of sheep use
this trod. My route crossed the beck by a small footbridge
after about a mile or so, and there were plenty of dark
clouds scudding higher up over the fells. The big boys
across the valley were topped with cloud and it didn't look like
clearing anytime soon. The steady grind up the valley gave
me plenty of time to consider my route - originally I was
going to add on Seatallan and Middle Fell, but I needed 2
cars to avoid a long road walk back from Glendale to
Overbeck. So I decided to save those two for another day,
which was just as well as I did more than enough ascent at
over 4300ft. Walking up the left side of Overbeck I had good
views of Yewbarrow without cricking my neck looking up and I
stayed higher up the valley side.

the weather looked threatening

looking over to Dore Head with Great Gable beyond

on my way up to Red Pike

As I approached the head
of the valley I decided to chop off the corner of the ascent
to Red Pike and contoured around the hillside. It made the
route a bit more fun, but I did miss out on staring over the
edge at Dore Head. As with all steep sided valleys in the
lakes the ground around the becks tends to be a bit moist
and this was no different - expect boggy ground if you're up
here in the rainy months. I was in the company of raptors
today, I could here the piercing cries up on Yewbarrow but
couldn't see them against the crags. Up at the head of the
valley I paused for some refreshments and reflection, with
stunning views all around I waited to see if the clouds
would clear up around the Scafells. No joy for a while but I
had a great vista of Pillar, Kirk Fell, Great Gable, the
Scafells, and beyond that Knott stood out under glowering
skies.

looking over to Wind Gap and Pillar

another view of Kirk Fell in front of Great Gable

still no rain yet

on top of Red Pike

the summit cairn on Red Pike

There's drama here looking over deep valleys, I could
pick out a few of the buildings down at Wasdale Head.
Majestic surroundings these mountains - not hills -
mountains, Englands roof. The clouds scudding darkly across
the fells bring out the character of the slopes not climbed
- looking steep and unassailable from adjacent fells -
easily walked when you actually get there. Past the hause at
Dore Head I knew it wasn't too far up to Red Pike and the
views kept me occupied. The thought was with me that once I
was up, I was up - but it was a bit like the Grand Old Duke
of York - plenty more ups and downs. The summit of Red Pike
is quite long and has a vertiginous drop to the north of the
summit cairn. It has commanding views all around and I
studied the ground around Scoat Tarn to get some idea of my
route later in the day. I had a good study of my map on the
top as it would be easy to be misled by the siren calls of
Wind Gap and Pillar away to the north.

a dramatic view over Mosedale down to Wasdale Head

the view over to Pillar on my way to Scoat Fell

Steeple appears high above Ennerdale

The Scafells still in cloud

a short diversion over to Steeple

the view from Steeple over to Pillar

The route off the top
of Red Pike veered around towards Wind Gap but I wanted to
be up on the left for Scoat Fell. Luckily I wasn't too far
around and a quick scramble up the slope soon had me on top
searching for a Scoat Fell of sorts, big or little, any
would do. One of the delights of this walk was the approach
to Steeple - a lovely little ridge out above Ennerdale. Very
apt as I was walking here in a months time when I did my
wobbly coast to coast path, so I had another good study of
my surrounds. Steeple itself was fairly straightforward to -
a little down on a scree path, and a little up to the summit
- vice versa for the return up to Scoat Fell. The views were
terrific again and I took the time to enjoy looking down
over Ennerdale stretching east to west.

and the other way down Ennerdale to the sea beyond

Haycock is the next peak

But I didn't dawdle too
much as I didn't want to be too late getting away today.
That's the only trouble with the western Lake District - it
takes sometime to get over there. I was soon back up on Scoat Fell and from there was verging towards the western
edge of the lakes - the character of the hills changing with
the geology - becoming more ladylike, softer and rounder.
Mind you Haycock had a hard edge to it, but I was quite
pleased that the descent/ascent weren't too steep, just a
reasonable slope up and down - not enough to groan, but
enough to get the heart beat a little faster. Haycock and
beyond started to remind me of the Pennines, albeit a little
higher. I met up with a fellow walker on the summit, map in
hand, with a puzzled look on his face. 'I'm just getting my
bearings....what's that over there...' - Me: '...er...that's
Scafell Pike' - Him - 'Oh...I'm going there soon'. I found
out he lived locally but hadn't bothered walking up here
until recently - hmmm should be against the law that. I sat
down in the shelter on top of Haycock and it was really,
really peaceful - so I thought to myself 'sod the drive, I'm
in no rush, no cares, so enjoy' - so I did. One pack of
Marmite crisps later I was off and trotting down the path to
Caw Fell, a pretty non-descript sort of summit - Alfred what
were you thinking? Needless to say I didn't wait around and
about turned for Haycock.

The Scafells were now in my view
so I didn't have to look around all the time. I walked back
up to Haycock, around it's splintered rocky summit with
crags around it's south side. I stood on the summit once
more and contemplated my route down - the advantage of clear
days. Rather than go back up to Scoat Fell I dropped down to
the col and a little way down the valley before skirting
around the contours towards Scoat Tarn - that saved me
another up and down. I had a look over to Seatallan and
Middle Fell and committed their shape to memory for another
day. I crossed over the outflow from Scoat Fell, a bit of a
dribble today and passed by the weather station on my way up
to the ridge below Red Pike. I also encountered some
interesting geology on the way up, some ropey volcanics with
gaseous lava enclosures - nice to look at and an excuse to
draw breathe. Up on the top of the ridge the views were
still good even though the Scafells had resumed their cloud
cap, everything else was clear. Next stop was to drop down
to Low Tarn - lower than Scoat Tarn and again slightly boggy
ground. But the bonus of that was that the tussock grass was
nice and springy on the way back. Cotton grass grew very
well down here as the tarn sits in a bowl below Red Pike, I
imagine that it's not a place to be when it's wet.

A little
further on it was a simple case of dropping back down to Overbeck and follow the path taken earlier. It turned out to
be a fine walk, blessed with decent weather and great views
all of the time, and at the death even the cloud lifted from
the Scafells to say goodbye. Back at the car I glugged some
water and a Red Bull, had a few snacks and sped off back to
Manchester to sleep the sleep of the satisfied walker -
brilliant.